It’s been a bit of a funny start to 2016 for the gremlin household. With us putting our house up for sale so quickly, selling and finding something within 2 weeks; it has been a bit stressful. The weather has been shocking for us all and so many times we have planned to go to the park or a local National Trust and had to cancel. Hubby and I are not drinking alcohol that much and haven’t had too many date nights, so what do we do instead?

We eat out….a LOT.

Sat in Pizza Hut yesterday hubby and I thought about how many times we had eaten out in the last 4 weeks and boy did it rack up:

No cooking. Hubster does most of the cooking anyways but lunch out means no meal to cook and we can all have a quick tea like we did last night; scrambled eggs and beans on toast.

I adore it. I love my food and eating out is one of my most favourite things to do. I like the atmosphere, no cleaning up, family time and it is something to do.

The gremlin is very used to eating out or having a drink out now and she is really well behaved. Even if her eating is not brilliant, she entertains herself, stays with us and tends to keep quiet. We have not had to resort to “the phone” for a very long time now, proving her skills for “fine dining” are improving.

I mentioned above; it is family time. It is something to do together. We can chat, share yummy food and just be together. I love this.

However, like everything; there are the negatives:

Cons

It gets expensive!! I dread to even try and add it up. Granted we have not been splurging on nights out or weekends away. I haven’t been shopping much, as the dreary winter clothes in the shops are driving me mad but eating out costs add up. What could we have done instead or saved for?

Diet! So hubster and I don’t gain weight easily but it is quite obvious an Indian upsets my hubby as the Gaviscon comes out and the dry horrible mouth the next morning gave rise to our term “the salt hangover”. When your diet is usually healthy and not too salty an excess of different foods can upset the balance. Luckily the gremlin tends to have reasonably ok choices; spaghetti bolognaise or a veggie pizza on a thin base. It’s the ice-cream afterwards that causes the problems..ahem.

It starts to become habit. The gremlin only has to get a sniff of Pizza Hut and she is begging to go so breaking that is hard. Hubby and I have decided we need some time off so back to home cooked food again.

I don’t think I could even knock eating out on the head; it would be too difficult. It is something hubby and I have always enjoyed and we definitely want the gremlin to be used to it and behave well (which she does at present).